Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2023
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Brill's Asian Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2023 is the electronic version of the book publication program of Brill in the field of Asian Studies in 2023.
Coverage: China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Central Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, History, Archeology, Sociology, Anthropology, Religion, Philosophy, Languages
This E-Book Collection is part of Brill's Asian Studies E-Books Online Collection.
The title list and free MARC records are available for download here.
For other pricing options and consortium arrangements, contact us at sales@brill.com.
Coverage: China, Japan, Korea, Tibet, Central Asia, South Asia, South East Asia, History, Archeology, Sociology, Anthropology, Religion, Philosophy, Languages
This E-Book Collection is part of Brill's Asian Studies E-Books Online Collection.
The title list and free MARC records are available for download here.
For other pricing options and consortium arrangements, contact us at sales@brill.com.
Please contact our sales team for more information on prices and licensing.
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How do you reconstruct a tradition of religious art wiped out by another religion? Naoko Gunji takes up this challenging question in Amidaji. Amidaji was a Buddhist temple in western Japan that, from the twelfth century onwards, overlooked the strait of Dannoura and commemorated the tragic protagonists of The Tale of the Heike who perished in the strait at the end of the Genpei War (1180–1185)―the Heike or the Taira clan and the child-emperor Antoku (1178–1185). Amidaji was destroyed, however, in 1870 amid a nativist, royalist movement of persecuting Buddhism, and replaced by an imperial Shinto shrine. Its art, architecture, and rituals were lost, and have until now been understood through the lens of the current shrine and a few surviving objects. By investigating numerous historical sources and artistic, literary, religious, political, and ideological contexts, Gunji reveals a carefully coordinated program of visual art and rituals for the salvation of Antoku and the Taira.
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This book is the winner of the 2023 Dr. Sona Aronian Book Prize for Excellence in Armenian Studies, awarded by National Association for Armenian Studies & Research
Though references to Greek myths will hardly surprise the reader of western European literature, the reception history of Greek mythology is far richer and includes such lesser known traditions as the Armenian one. Greek myths were known to medieval Armenians through translations of late classical and early Christian writings and through the original works of Armenian authors. However, accessing them in their Armenian incarnations is no easy task. References to them are difficult to find as they are scattered over the vast medieval Armenian written corpus. Furthermore, during the process of translation, transmission, retelling, and copying of Greek mythical stories, Greek names, words, and plot details frequently became corrupted.
In this first-of-its-kind study, Gohar Muradyan brings together all the known references to ancient Greek myths (154 episodes) in medieval Armenian literature. Alongside the original Armenian passages and, when extant, their Greek originals, she provides annotated English translations. She opens the book with an informative introduction and concludes with useful appendices listing the occurrences of Greek gods, their Armenian equivalents, images, altars, temples, and rites, as well as Aesop’s fables and the Trojan War.
Though references to Greek myths will hardly surprise the reader of western European literature, the reception history of Greek mythology is far richer and includes such lesser known traditions as the Armenian one. Greek myths were known to medieval Armenians through translations of late classical and early Christian writings and through the original works of Armenian authors. However, accessing them in their Armenian incarnations is no easy task. References to them are difficult to find as they are scattered over the vast medieval Armenian written corpus. Furthermore, during the process of translation, transmission, retelling, and copying of Greek mythical stories, Greek names, words, and plot details frequently became corrupted.
In this first-of-its-kind study, Gohar Muradyan brings together all the known references to ancient Greek myths (154 episodes) in medieval Armenian literature. Alongside the original Armenian passages and, when extant, their Greek originals, she provides annotated English translations. She opens the book with an informative introduction and concludes with useful appendices listing the occurrences of Greek gods, their Armenian equivalents, images, altars, temples, and rites, as well as Aesop’s fables and the Trojan War.
Multidisciplinary Studies in Honour of Theo Maarten van Lint
The open access publication of this book has been published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.
From pilgrimage sites in the far west of Europe to the Persian court; from mystic visions to a gruesome contemporary “dance”; from a mundane poem on wine to staggering religious art: thus far in space and time extends the world of the Armenians.
A glimpse of the vast and still largely unexplored threads that connect it to the wider world is offered by the papers assembled here in homage to one of the most versatile contemporary armenologists, Theo Maarten van Lint.
This collection offers original insights through a multifaceted lens, showing how much Armenology can offer to Art History, History, Linguistics, Philology, Literature, and Religious Studies. Scholars will find new inspirations and connections, while the general reader will open a window to a world that is just as wide as it is often unseen.
From pilgrimage sites in the far west of Europe to the Persian court; from mystic visions to a gruesome contemporary “dance”; from a mundane poem on wine to staggering religious art: thus far in space and time extends the world of the Armenians.
A glimpse of the vast and still largely unexplored threads that connect it to the wider world is offered by the papers assembled here in homage to one of the most versatile contemporary armenologists, Theo Maarten van Lint.
This collection offers original insights through a multifaceted lens, showing how much Armenology can offer to Art History, History, Linguistics, Philology, Literature, and Religious Studies. Scholars will find new inspirations and connections, while the general reader will open a window to a world that is just as wide as it is often unseen.
Selected Works of Li Bingde, Lu Jie, Wang Fengxian and Huang Ji
This book introduces four influential Chinese educators of the later 20th century whose writings had enormous influence on many dimensions of the educational reforms which underly China’s remarkable transformation into a global superpower. None of them published in English and only Li Bingde, a leader in educational experimentation, had studied abroad. Huang Ji at Beijing Normal University was an educational philosopher who interpreted Chinese classical texts as well as arts such as calligraphy and painting in ways that brought new life to Chinese pedagogy. Lu Jie at Nanjing Normal University and Wang Fengxian at Northeast Normal University were leaders in developing a whole new approach to moral education that highlighted subjectivity and self awakening as China became a socialist market economy.
Beyond Citizenship focuses on the role of literacy in building a modern nation-state by examining the government provision of adult literacy training in early twentieth-century China. Based on untapped archives and diaries, Di Luo uncovers people’s strategic use of literacy and illiteracy in social interactions and explores the impact of daily experiences on the expansion of state power. Highlighting interpersonal and intergroup relations, Beyond Citizenship suggests a new methodology of studying literacy which foregrounds the agentive role of historical actors and so moves away from a more traditional approach that treats literacy itself as the key factor enabling social change.
The volume, edited by Tao Feiya and featuring recent Chinese scholarly articles translated into English for the first time by Max L. Bohnenkamp, traces the history of Christianity in China and explores the dynamics of Christian practices in Chinese society. Its twenty chapters, written by Chinese scholars of the history of religion, span the development of Christianity in China from the era of the Tang Dynasty to the twentieth century. The four parts of the volume explore the Sinicization of Christian texts and thought, the conflicts within China between Christianity and Chinese institutions, relations between religious groups, and societal and political issues beyond religion. Taken together, this volume places the practice of Christianity in China into the context of world history, while investigating the particular and localized challenges of Christianity’s spread in China.
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Contrary to the usual sympathetic image of Kang Youwei found in historical studies, The Big Cheat offers a starkly negative portrayal of Kang. Its author, Huang Shizhong, a late Qing revolutionary and prolific author of over 20 novels, depicts Kang as a lifelong master fraud. His attack on Kang sheds light on the reform-revolution divide featured in every narrative about the rise of modern China.
Huang’s novel stands as a period testimony to the political and ideological struggles for China’s future during the last years of the Qing dynasty before it fell in 1912. This is the first English language edition of the novel, translated by Luke S. K. Kwong, who offers an extensive introduction contextualizing Huang's novel in historical perspective.
Huang’s novel stands as a period testimony to the political and ideological struggles for China’s future during the last years of the Qing dynasty before it fell in 1912. This is the first English language edition of the novel, translated by Luke S. K. Kwong, who offers an extensive introduction contextualizing Huang's novel in historical perspective.
Buddhist Statecraft in East Asia explores the long relationship between Buddhism and the state in premodern times and seeks to counter the modern, secularist notion that Buddhism, as a religion, is inherently apolitical. By revealing the methods by which members of Buddhist communities across premodern East Asia related to imperial rule, this volume offers case studies of how Buddhists, their texts, material culture, ideas, and institutions legitimated rulers and defended regimes across the region.
The volume also reveals a history of Buddhist writing, protest, and rebellion against the state.
Contributors are Stephanie Balkwill, James A. Benn, Megan Bryson, Gregory N. Evon, Geoffrey C. Goble, Richard D. McBride II, and Jacqueline I. Stone.
The volume also reveals a history of Buddhist writing, protest, and rebellion against the state.
Contributors are Stephanie Balkwill, James A. Benn, Megan Bryson, Gregory N. Evon, Geoffrey C. Goble, Richard D. McBride II, and Jacqueline I. Stone.
Role and Content of Its Historical Access to the Outside World
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The book investigates China’s relations to the outside world between ca. 100 BCE and 1800 CE. In contrast to most histories of the Silk Roads, the focus of this book clearly lies on the maritime Silk Road and on the period between Tang and high Qing, selecting aspects that have so far been neglected in research on the history of China’s relations with the outside world. The author examines, for example, issue of 'imperialism' in imperial China, the specific role of fanbing 蕃兵 (frontier tribal troops) during Song times, the interrelationship between maritime commerce, military expansion, and environmental factors during the Yuan, the question of whether or not early Ming China can be considered a (proto-)colonialist country, the role force and violence played during the Zheng He expeditions, and the significance the Asia-Pacific world possessed for late Ming and early Qing rulers.
China has a long and complex history of interactions with the world around it. One of the most successful imports—arguably the most successful before modern times and the impact of the West—is Buddhism, which, since the first centuries of the Common Era, has spread into almost every aspect of Chinese life, thought and practice.
Erik Zürcher was one of the most important scholars to study the history of Buddhism in China, and the ways in which Buddhism in China gradually became Chinese Buddhism. More than half a century after the publication of Zürcher's landmark The Buddhist Conquest of China, we now have a collection of essays from the top contemporary specialists exploring aspects of the legacy of Zürcher's investigations, bringing forward new evidence, new ideas and reconsiderations of old theories to present an up-to-date and exciting expansion and revision of what was arguably the single most influential contribution to date on the history of Chinese Buddhism. Contributors are Tim Barrett, Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Funayama Toru, Barend ter Haar, Liu Shufen, Minku Kim, Jan Nattier, Antonello Palumbo, and Nicolas Standaert.
Erik Zürcher was one of the most important scholars to study the history of Buddhism in China, and the ways in which Buddhism in China gradually became Chinese Buddhism. More than half a century after the publication of Zürcher's landmark The Buddhist Conquest of China, we now have a collection of essays from the top contemporary specialists exploring aspects of the legacy of Zürcher's investigations, bringing forward new evidence, new ideas and reconsiderations of old theories to present an up-to-date and exciting expansion and revision of what was arguably the single most influential contribution to date on the history of Chinese Buddhism. Contributors are Tim Barrett, Stephen R. Bokenkamp, Funayama Toru, Barend ter Haar, Liu Shufen, Minku Kim, Jan Nattier, Antonello Palumbo, and Nicolas Standaert.
Mobilities, Meanings, Manoeuvrings
Volume Editors:
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This volume explores how the city and the sea converse and converge in creating new forms of everyday urbanity in archipelagic and island Southeast Asia. Drawing inspiration from case studies spanning Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, and New Caledonia, the volume rethinks the place of the sea in coastal cities, through a mobility-inspired understanding of urbanity itself. How might conceptualisations of contemporary coastal urbanisms be approached from the sea, in ways that complicate singularly terrestrial, fixed framings of the city? What connections, contradictions, and dissonances can be found between sea change and urban change? While addressing these questions, the authors re-centre more marginal voices of those who dwell and work in islanded metropoles, offering new insights on the futures and contested nature(s) of littoral urban transformation.
Alternative Models of Ethics and Axiology in Times of Global Crises
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Environmental disasters, unequal distribution of resources, viral pandemics, and other types of trans-national disasters, are global crises that cannot be solved within the narrow framework of individual nation-states. They must be addressed through global cooperation and solidarity. Such strategies require intercultural dialog that goes beyond fashionable slogans and can lead to a truly equal exchange of knowledge and ideas.
Towards this endeavour, this book by Jana S. Rošker focuses on the traditional Confucian ethic of relationism, which historically spread throughout many regions of East Asia. She examines the specific features of relational ethics and explores its possible contribution to the new global ethics.
Towards this endeavour, this book by Jana S. Rošker focuses on the traditional Confucian ethic of relationism, which historically spread throughout many regions of East Asia. She examines the specific features of relational ethics and explores its possible contribution to the new global ethics.
Reading Sheldon Pollock from the Sinographic Cosmopolis
Volume Editor:
Sheldon Pollock’s work on the history of literary cultures in the ‘Sanskrit Cosmopolis’ broke new ground in the theorization of historical processes of vernacularization and served as a wake-up call for comparative approaches to such processes in other translocal cultural formations. But are his characterizations of vernacularization in the Sinographic Sphere accurate, and do his ideas and framework allow us to speak of a ‘Sinographic Cosmopolis’? How do the special typology of sinographic writing and associated technologies of vernacular reading complicate comparisons between the Sankrit and Latinate cosmopoleis? Such are the questions tackled in this volume.
Contributors are Daehoe Ahn, Yufen Chang, Wiebke Denecke, Torquil Duthie, Marion Eggert, Greg Evon, Hoduk Hwang, John Jorgensen, Ross King, David Lurie, Alexey Lushchenko, Si Nae Park, John Phan, Mareshi Saito, and S. William Wells.
Contributors are Daehoe Ahn, Yufen Chang, Wiebke Denecke, Torquil Duthie, Marion Eggert, Greg Evon, Hoduk Hwang, John Jorgensen, Ross King, David Lurie, Alexey Lushchenko, Si Nae Park, John Phan, Mareshi Saito, and S. William Wells.
Selected Essays
Volume Editor:
The establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 heralded dramatic changes in Chinese cultural practices. This volume, the latest entry in the Historical Studies of Contemporary China series, includes 11 articles translated from Historical Studies of Contemporary China (Dangdai Zhongguo shi yanjiu), one of China’s leading academic journals.
The broad range of cultural forms covered include the book trade and publishing industry, comic strips, literacy and education, popular visual art, Peking Opera, and rural temple fairs. This volume introduces readers to cutting edge Chinese language scholarship and a vibrant cultural scene as it transitioned to the era of the People’s Republic, tracing the continuities as well as the changes in cultural life in China throughout the 20th century.
The broad range of cultural forms covered include the book trade and publishing industry, comic strips, literacy and education, popular visual art, Peking Opera, and rural temple fairs. This volume introduces readers to cutting edge Chinese language scholarship and a vibrant cultural scene as it transitioned to the era of the People’s Republic, tracing the continuities as well as the changes in cultural life in China throughout the 20th century.
(De)Colonialism, Orientalism, and Imagining Asia
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In The Curious Case of the Camel in Modern Japan Ayelet Zohar critically analyzes camel images as a metonymy for Asia, and Japanese attitudes towards the continent. The book reads into encounters with the exotic animals, from nanban art, realist Dutch-influenced illustrations, through misemono roadshows of the first camel-pair imported in 1821. Modernity and Japan’s wars of Pan-Asiatic fantasies associated camels with Asia’s poverty, bringing camels into zoos, tourist venues, and military zones, as lowly beasts of burden, while postwar images project the imago of exotica and foreignness on camels as Buddhist ‘peace’ messengers. Zohar convincingly argues that in the Japanese imagination, camels serve as signifiers of Asia as Otherness, the opposite of Japan’s desire for self-association with Western cultures.
The Evolution of a Japanese Folk Deity from Hell Figure to Popular Savior
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The first comprehensive study in English of the Japanese hell figure Datsueba explores her evolution since her eleventh-century emergence as a terrifying old woman who strips the clothes of the dead in the afterworld.
Drawing widely on literature, art, and worship practices, the author reveals how the creative utilization of Datsueba’s key attributes—including a marker of borders, a keeper of cloth, and an elderly woman—transformed her into a guardian of the human journey through life and death and shaped a figure that is diverse and multifaceted, yet also strikingly recognizable across the centuries.
Drawing widely on literature, art, and worship practices, the author reveals how the creative utilization of Datsueba’s key attributes—including a marker of borders, a keeper of cloth, and an elderly woman—transformed her into a guardian of the human journey through life and death and shaped a figure that is diverse and multifaceted, yet also strikingly recognizable across the centuries.
The Conditions of Confinement in Modern Asian History
Why have Asian states – colonial and independent – imprisoned people on a massive scale in detention camps? How have detainees experienced the long months and years of captivity? And what does the creation of camps and the segregation of people in them mean for society as a whole? This ambitious book surveys the systems of detention camps set up in Asia from the beginning of the 20th century in The Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, Malaya, Myanmar (Burma), Vietnam, Timor, Korea and China.
This is the first book in English on Chinese-language digital media in Australia. The book comes at a time when the relationship between China and the West is at its most troubling since the end of the Cold War. Combining rich ethnographic insights with dispassionate analysis, this investigation into Australia’s Chinese-language digital and social media sheds new light on how migrants from the People’s Republic of China negotiate two media, cultural and political systems. The book is a timely antidote to the polarized and often simplistic positions that dominate ongoing debates about the Chinese diaspora and diasporic media, and injects much-needed nuance into analyses of the changing face of Chinese transnationalism.
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Drawing on Dunhuang manuscripts and the latest scholarship in Dunhuang and Buddhist Studies, this translation analyzes Buddhist monasticism via such topics as the organizational forms of Dunhuang Buddhist monasteries, the construction and operation of ordination platforms, ordination certificates and government ordination licenses, and meditation retreats, etc.
Assuming a pan-Asian perspective, the monograph also made trailblazing contributions to the study of Buddhist Sinicization and Sino-Indian cultural exchanges and is bound to exert long-lasting influences on the worldwide academic study of Buddhism.
Assuming a pan-Asian perspective, the monograph also made trailblazing contributions to the study of Buddhist Sinicization and Sino-Indian cultural exchanges and is bound to exert long-lasting influences on the worldwide academic study of Buddhism.
A great number of historical examples show how desperate people sought to obtain a glimpse of the future or explain certain incidents retrospectively through signs that had occurred in advance. In that sense, signs are always considered a portent of future events. In different societies, and at different times, the written or unwritten rules regarding their interpretation varied, although there was perhaps a common understanding of these processes.
This present volume collates essays from specialists in the field of prognostication in the European Middle Ages.
Contributors are Klaus Herbers, Wolfram Brandes, Zhao Lu, Rolf Scheuermann, Thomas Krümpel, Bernardo Bertholin Kerr, Gaelle Bosseman, Julia Eva Wannenmacher (†), Matthias Kaup, Vincent Gossaert, Jürgen Gebhardt, Matthias Gebauer, Richard Landes.
This present volume collates essays from specialists in the field of prognostication in the European Middle Ages.
Contributors are Klaus Herbers, Wolfram Brandes, Zhao Lu, Rolf Scheuermann, Thomas Krümpel, Bernardo Bertholin Kerr, Gaelle Bosseman, Julia Eva Wannenmacher (†), Matthias Kaup, Vincent Gossaert, Jürgen Gebhardt, Matthias Gebauer, Richard Landes.
The Rivers and Lakes Poets of the Southern Song
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Zhang explores the sociohistorical environment that produced those poets, an era of political intrigues, geopolitical threats, the rise of commodity economy, flourishing popular culture, and glamorous urban life. Poetry was their means of livelihood as they drifted between low positions or as commoners, living by procuring favors from the powerful elite. The sadness and joys of a life in precarity shaped their thematic and stylistic choices, response to contemporary literary trends, and choice of poetic models. They formed a broad social network that straddled the scholar-officials and ordinary townsmen. While their poetry reflects the characteristics and concerns of both classes, there emerged a shared voice distinctly their own that turned the tide of poetry in the 13th century.
The Song Dynasty Making of China’s Greatest Poet
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Irreducible to conventional labels usually applied to him, the Tang poet Du Fu (712–770) both defined and was defined by the literary, intellectual, and socio-political cultures of the Song dynasty (960–1279).
Jue Chen not only argues in his work that Du Fu was constructed according to particular literary and intellectual agendas of Song literati but also that conventional labels applied to Du Fu do not accurately represent this construction campaign. He also discusses how Du Fu’s image as the greatest poet sheds unique light on issues that can deepen our understanding of the subtleties in the poetic culture of Song China.
Jue Chen not only argues in his work that Du Fu was constructed according to particular literary and intellectual agendas of Song literati but also that conventional labels applied to Du Fu do not accurately represent this construction campaign. He also discusses how Du Fu’s image as the greatest poet sheds unique light on issues that can deepen our understanding of the subtleties in the poetic culture of Song China.
Sayings, Memory, Verse, and Knowledge
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As the first study of manuscript collections, this book asks what changes when sayings, stories, songs, and spells are brought together on the same carrier.
Covering a plethora of manuscripts from the Warring States and early empires, and spanning sources from philosophy, historiography, poetry, and technical literature, this study describes the whole life-cycle of multiple texts collected on a single manuscript.
Drawing on comparative and interdisciplinary advances and based on careful study of manuscript materiality and textuality, this book shows the importance of collections in the development of and access to text and knowledge in early China.
Covering a plethora of manuscripts from the Warring States and early empires, and spanning sources from philosophy, historiography, poetry, and technical literature, this study describes the whole life-cycle of multiple texts collected on a single manuscript.
Drawing on comparative and interdisciplinary advances and based on careful study of manuscript materiality and textuality, this book shows the importance of collections in the development of and access to text and knowledge in early China.
Education, the production of knowledge, identity formation, and ideological hegemony are inextricably linked in early modern and modern Korea. This study examines the production and consumption of knowledge by a multitude of actors and across languages, texts, and disciplines to analyze the formulation, contestation, and negotiation of knowledge. The production and dissemination of knowledge become sites for contestation and struggle—sometimes overlapping, at other times competing—resulting in a shift from a focus on state power and its control over knowledge and discourse to an analysis of local processes of knowledge production and the roles local actors play in them. Contributors are Daniel Pieper, W. Scott Wells, Yong-Jin Hahn, Furukawa Noriko, Lim Sang Seok, Kokubu Mari, Mark Caprio, Deborah Solomon, and Yoonmi Lee.
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The notion of effortlessness is central to the self-understanding of the Tibetan contemplative tradition known as Dzogchen. This book explores this key notion from a variety of perspectives, highlighting the distinctive role it plays in the Dzogchen approach’s doctrinal architecture and meditative programme.
The book’s focus is on the early development of the Dzogchen tradition, especially as codified in a set of hitherto unstudied commentaries by the 10th-century scholar and meditation master Nubchen Sangye Yeshe. A full annotated translation of the commentaries is provided, along with an edition of the Tibetan texts on facing pages.
The book’s focus is on the early development of the Dzogchen tradition, especially as codified in a set of hitherto unstudied commentaries by the 10th-century scholar and meditation master Nubchen Sangye Yeshe. A full annotated translation of the commentaries is provided, along with an edition of the Tibetan texts on facing pages.
Zen and the Tantric Teachings in Premodern Japan
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When a Zen teacher tells you to point at your mind, which part of your body do you point at?
According to the Japanese master Chikotsu Daie (1229–1312), you should point at the fistful of meat that is your heart. Esoteric Zen demonstrates that far from an outlier, Daie's understanding reflects the medieval Buddhist mainstream, in which tantric teachings and Zen were closely entwined movements that often developed within the same circles of thinkers and texts. ,br/> Drawing on newly discovered manuscript materials, it shows how medieval practitioners constructed a unique form of Zen by drawing on tantric doctrinal discourses.
According to the Japanese master Chikotsu Daie (1229–1312), you should point at the fistful of meat that is your heart. Esoteric Zen demonstrates that far from an outlier, Daie's understanding reflects the medieval Buddhist mainstream, in which tantric teachings and Zen were closely entwined movements that often developed within the same circles of thinkers and texts. ,br/> Drawing on newly discovered manuscript materials, it shows how medieval practitioners constructed a unique form of Zen by drawing on tantric doctrinal discourses.
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Ethnic Minorities in Socialist China: Development, Migration, Culture, and Identity, edited by Dr. Han Xiaorong and translated into English by Zeng Qiang, presents nine articles written by Chinese scholars about the transformation of China’s ethnic minority groups in the socialist era. Focusing on seven of the 55 ethnic minorities in China, the nine articles cover four major themes: development, migration, culture and identity. These case studies are based on both fieldwork and written sources, and most authors make connections between their case studies and relevant social scientific theories. Peoples and places studied include the autonomous regions of Tibet and Inner Mongolia; the Hanni, Dai, and Bai peoples of Yunnan Province; Miao farmers of Yangjiang in Guangdong; and the Yi people of the Pearl River Delta region. These studies, which originally appeared in Open Times (开放时代), broadly reflect the concerns, interests and perspectives of the Chinese scholars involved in the study of China’s ethnic minorities.
The Eastern Himalaya holds perhaps the highest levels of ethnolinguistic diversity in all Eurasia, with over 300 languages spoken by as many distinct cultural groups. What factors can explain such diversity? How did it evolve, and what can its analysis teach us about the prehistory of its wider region?
This pioneering interdisciplinary volume brings together a diverse group of linguists and anthropologists, all of whom seek to reconstruct aspects of Eastern Himalayan ethnolinguistic prehistory from an empirical standpoint, on the basis of primary fieldwork-derived data from a diverse range of Himalayan Indigenous languages and cultural practices.
Contributors are: David Bradley, Scott DeLancey, Toni Huber, Gwendolyn Hyslop, Linda Konnerth, Ismael Lieberherr, Yankee Modi, Stephen Morey, Mark W. Post, Uta Reinöhl, Alban Stockhausen, Amos Teo, and Marion Wettstein .
This pioneering interdisciplinary volume brings together a diverse group of linguists and anthropologists, all of whom seek to reconstruct aspects of Eastern Himalayan ethnolinguistic prehistory from an empirical standpoint, on the basis of primary fieldwork-derived data from a diverse range of Himalayan Indigenous languages and cultural practices.
Contributors are: David Bradley, Scott DeLancey, Toni Huber, Gwendolyn Hyslop, Linda Konnerth, Ismael Lieberherr, Yankee Modi, Stephen Morey, Mark W. Post, Uta Reinöhl, Alban Stockhausen, Amos Teo, and Marion Wettstein .
Military History and Ethnicity. Volume 1: The Twenty-Eight Yuntai Generals of the Eastern Han
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Contributor:
The Book of Later Han (Houhanshu) by Fan Ye (398-445) is enormously important as China’s most complete work on Eastern Han history in biographical form. For the first time in any Western language, the author introduces Fan Ye’s magnificent writings in lively translation with rich annotation and informative and insightful commentary.
This first volume covers its early military history and highlights the lives and achievements of the twenty-eight generals who helped Emperor Guangwu unify China and establish the Eastern Han dynasty.
Also included are images of these twenty-eight founding fathers, maps, and information related to early Eastern Han systems.
This first volume covers its early military history and highlights the lives and achievements of the twenty-eight generals who helped Emperor Guangwu unify China and establish the Eastern Han dynasty.
Also included are images of these twenty-eight founding fathers, maps, and information related to early Eastern Han systems.
The Avestan Text of Yasna 28–30 and Its Tradition
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Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 2 South Asia, Volume: 4 and
Corpus Avesticum, Volume: 4
Author:
At the center of this book stands a text-critical edition of three chapters of the Gāthās, exemplifying the editorial methodology developed by the “Multimedia Yasna” (MUYA) project and its application to the Old Avestan parts of the Yasna liturgy.
Proceeding from this edition, the book explores aspects of the transmission and ritual embedding of the text, and of its late antique exegetical reception in the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) tradition. Drawing also on a contemporary performance of the Yasna that was filmed by MUYA in Mumbai in 2017, the book aims to convey a sense of the Avestan language in its role as a central element of continuity around which the Zoroastrian tradition has evolved from its prehistoric roots up to the modern era.
Proceeding from this edition, the book explores aspects of the transmission and ritual embedding of the text, and of its late antique exegetical reception in the Middle Persian (Pahlavi) tradition. Drawing also on a contemporary performance of the Yasna that was filmed by MUYA in Mumbai in 2017, the book aims to convey a sense of the Avestan language in its role as a central element of continuity around which the Zoroastrian tradition has evolved from its prehistoric roots up to the modern era.
Changing Concepts of xin 信 from Traditional to Modern Chinese
What does the Chinese term xin 信 mean? How does it relate to the concept of faith in a Western sense? How far does it still denote “being trustworthy” in its ancient Confucian sense? When did major shifts occur in its long history of semantics that allowed later Christian missionaries to use the term regularly as a translation for the concept of believing in gods or God?
This volume offers a broad picture of the semantic history of this Chinese term, throwing light on its semantic multi-layeredness shaped by changing discursive contexts, interactions between various ideological milieus, and transcultural encounters.
This volume offers a broad picture of the semantic history of this Chinese term, throwing light on its semantic multi-layeredness shaped by changing discursive contexts, interactions between various ideological milieus, and transcultural encounters.
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How has modern Chinese literature emerged from the collision of domestic social upheaval, foreign inspiration and sparks of creative genius during the past century? Sihe Chen explores this question from a global perspective, analysing how Chinese authors assimilated Western literary movements to create new forms of expression adapted to a society in rapid transformation. The author then examines these global influences in the works of selected contemporary Chinese novelists and poets. He shows that the problems these writers confront are common to all peoples and that Chinese literature expresses not only the story of China, but also that of humanity.
Social and Cultural Constructs of Hakka Identity in Modern and Contemporary Fujian, China
Series:
China Studies, Volume: 47
Author:
Sabrina Ardizzoni’s book is an in-depth analysis of Hakka women in tulou villages in Southeast China. Based on fieldwork, data acquired through local documents, diverse material and symbolic culture elements, this study adopts an original approach that includes historical-textual investigation and socio-anthropological enquiry. Having interviewed local Hakka women and participated in rural village events, public and private, in west Fujian’s Hakka tulou area, the author provides a comprehensive overview of the historical threads and cultural processes that lead to the construction of the ideal Hakka woman, as well as an insightful analysis of the multifaceted Hakka society in which rural women reinvent their social subjectivity and negotiate their position between traditional constructs and modern dynamics.
Mantras, Initiation and Preparing for Worship (Chapters 1–5). Critical Edition and Annotated Translation
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Sanātana Gosvāmin’s Haribhaktivilāsa (ca. 1540) describes the normative ritual life of a Vaiṣṇava devotee. As it is one of the first Sanskrit texts of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇava tradition begun by Śrī Kṛṣṇa Caitanya (1486–1533) it presents a fascinating meeting between this ecstatic new religious movement and older, Brahminical tradition.
On the basis of eleven manuscripts, this important text has now been for the first time been critically edited. In his extensive introduction, Måns Broo engages with many of the questions that have vexed earlier scholars of this text (such as who really was the author?) by exploring its extensive intertextualities.
On the basis of eleven manuscripts, this important text has now been for the first time been critically edited. In his extensive introduction, Måns Broo engages with many of the questions that have vexed earlier scholars of this text (such as who really was the author?) by exploring its extensive intertextualities.
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From prehistoric bone flutes to Confucian bell-sets, from ancient divination to his beloved qin, this book presents translations of thirteen seminal essays on musical subjects by Jao Tsung-i. In language as elegant and refined as the ancient texts he so admired, his journey takes readers through Buddhist incantation, the philosophy of musical instruments, acoustical numerology, lyric poetry, historical and sociological contexts, manuscript studies, dance choreography, repertoire formulation, and opera texts. His voice is authoritative and intimate, the expert crafting his arguments, both accessible and sophisticated, succinct and richly tapestried; and concealed within a deft modesty is a thinker privileging us with his most profound observation. The musician’s musician, the scholar’s scholar, bold yet cautious, flamboyant yet restrained, a man for all seasons, a harmoniousness of time and place.
The Ideas and Identities of Two Cantonese Socialists, 1917–1928
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China Studies, Volume: 51
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In this book, Xuduo Zhao revisits the early twentieth-century Chinese revolution by focusing on two forgotten Cantonese socialists: Chen Gongbo and Tan Pingshan. By analyzing a host of previously untapped primary sources, Zhao discovers a social democratic approach within the newly founded Chinese Communist Party and argues that its decline marked a key moment in the Chinese communist movement.
The study of these two figures, and the ebbs and flows of their lives, reflects and reveals the fundamental tensions in the Chinese revolution which have shaped China’s political trajectory to contemporary times and the broader political, social, and cultural landscapes of Republican China.
The study of these two figures, and the ebbs and flows of their lives, reflects and reveals the fundamental tensions in the Chinese revolution which have shaped China’s political trajectory to contemporary times and the broader political, social, and cultural landscapes of Republican China.
Visualizing Tokugawa Cultural Networks
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This book examines the cultural networks that connected people during the Edo period (1603-1868) by surveying a wide range of visual representations of the Orchid Pavilion Gathering produced mostly in Japan. The Orchid Pavilion Gathering is one of the most important painting themes in the cultural history of East Asia, yet there has hitherto been no monograph focused on this subject in the English language. This project introduces the many important images representing and related to the Gathering, some of which have never before been published.
Colonial and National Racialisations in Southeast Asia
Imagined Racial Laboratories reveals the watermarks of science in the dynamics of racialisation in Southeast Asia, during and after the colonial period. Bringing together a set of critical histories of race sciences, it illuminates the racialised dimensions of colony and nation in the region. It demonstrates that racialisation took — and continues to take — mutable and multiple forms that often connect, perhaps more than differentiate, colonial and national periods across a variety of Southeast Asian settings. Thus, imagined races have contributed as much to the invention of modern Southeast Asia as have other fabled imagined communities.
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The introduction of writing enables new forms of literature, but these can be invisible in works that survive as manuscripts. Through looking at inscriptions of poetry on garbage and as graffiti, we can glimpse how literature spread along with writing.
This study uses these lesser-studied sources, including inscriptions on pottery, architecture, and especially wooden tablets known as mokkan, to uncover how poetry, and literature more broadly, was used, shared and thrown away in early Japan. Through looking at these disposable and informal sources, we explore the development of early Japanese literature, and even propose parallels to similar developments in other societies across space and time.
This study uses these lesser-studied sources, including inscriptions on pottery, architecture, and especially wooden tablets known as mokkan, to uncover how poetry, and literature more broadly, was used, shared and thrown away in early Japan. Through looking at these disposable and informal sources, we explore the development of early Japanese literature, and even propose parallels to similar developments in other societies across space and time.
Manuel Dias Jr.’s Correct Explanation of the Tang “Stele Eulogy on the Luminous Teaching” (1644)
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The book contains the first annotated English translation of the Correct Explanation of the Tang “Stele Eulogy on the Luminous Teaching” (1644) by the Jesuit Manuel Dias Jr. and other late Ming Chinese Christian sources interpreting the “venerable ancestor” of the Jesuit mission, namely, the mission of the Church of the East in Tang China.
Based on this documentation, the book reconstructs the process of “appropriation” by Jesuit missionaries and their Chinese converts of ancient traces of Christianity that were discovered in China in the first half of the seventeenth century, such as the Xi’an stele (781) and other Christian relics
Based on this documentation, the book reconstructs the process of “appropriation” by Jesuit missionaries and their Chinese converts of ancient traces of Christianity that were discovered in China in the first half of the seventeenth century, such as the Xi’an stele (781) and other Christian relics
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Kazakh Muslims in the Red Army is the first study of the WWII experience of Soviet Kazakhs. Based on indigenous-language sources, it focuses on the wartime experiences of Kazakh conscripts and the home front as expressed in correspondence. The study emphasizes how Kazakh social structure, religion, and patriotism were expressed and mobilized during the war years.
By focusing on indigenous forms of private correspondence, the book presents an alternative to previous studies focusing on narratives and documentation derived from the Soviet state. It offers an entirely new basis for examining the wartime experiences of Soviet citizens and Soviet Muslims.
By focusing on indigenous forms of private correspondence, the book presents an alternative to previous studies focusing on narratives and documentation derived from the Soviet state. It offers an entirely new basis for examining the wartime experiences of Soviet citizens and Soviet Muslims.
A Middle Javanese Romance
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Javanese, a major language of Southeast Asia, possesses a little-known literature, occurring in various phases, Old, Middle and Modern. This publication presents a remarkable example, from the poetical literature of Middle Javanese, in an edited text with English translation and an extensive commentary. The aim is to acquaint a wider audience with this literature, in the hope of drawing attention to its fascinating qualities. Set principally in the Singhasari area of East Java, the narrative follows the journey of the lovers, Pañji Margasmara and Ken Candrasari, offering a glimpse of the beauty of the Javanese landscape in the 15th century. The cultural, historical and archaeological details preserved in the text help to shed light on the closing years of Majapahit, a largely unexplored period in Javanese history, before the age of Islam.
Elites in Transition in Modern China
In the past decades, the world has watched the rise of China as an economic and military power and the emergence of Chinese transnational elites. What may seem like an entirely new phenomenon marks the revival of a trend initiated at the end of the Qing. The redistribution of power, wealth and knowledge among the newly formed elites matured during the Republican period.
This volume demonstrates both the difficulty and the value of re-thinking the elites in modern China. It establishes that the study of the dynamic tensions within the elite and among elite groups in this epochal era is within reach if we are prepared to embrace forms of historical inquiry that integrate the abundant and even limitless historical resources, and to engage with the rich repertoire of digital techniques/instruments available and question our previous research paradigms.
This renewed approach brings historical research closer to an integrative data-rich history of modern China.
This volume demonstrates both the difficulty and the value of re-thinking the elites in modern China. It establishes that the study of the dynamic tensions within the elite and among elite groups in this epochal era is within reach if we are prepared to embrace forms of historical inquiry that integrate the abundant and even limitless historical resources, and to engage with the rich repertoire of digital techniques/instruments available and question our previous research paradigms.
This renewed approach brings historical research closer to an integrative data-rich history of modern China.
Dissent and Creativity in Chosŏn Korea
The Lives and Legacy of Kim Sisŭp (1435–1493) offers an account of the most extraordinary figure of Korean literature and intellectual history. The present work narrates the fascinating story of a prodigious child, acclaimed poet, author of the first Korean novel, Buddhist monk, model subject, Confucian recluse and Daoist master. No other Chosŏn scholar or writer has been venerated in both Confucian shrines and Buddhist temples, had his works widely read in Tokugawa Japan and became an integral part of the North Korean literary canon.
The nine studies and further materials presented in this volume provide a detailed look on the various aspects of Kim Sisŭp’s life and work as well as a reflection of both traditional and modern narratives surrounding his legacy. Contributors are: Vladimír Glomb, Gregory N. Evon, Dennis Wuerthner, Barbara Wall, Kim Daeyeol, Miriam Löwensteinová, Anastasia A. Guryeva, Sixiang Wang, and Diana Yüksel.
The nine studies and further materials presented in this volume provide a detailed look on the various aspects of Kim Sisŭp’s life and work as well as a reflection of both traditional and modern narratives surrounding his legacy. Contributors are: Vladimír Glomb, Gregory N. Evon, Dennis Wuerthner, Barbara Wall, Kim Daeyeol, Miriam Löwensteinová, Anastasia A. Guryeva, Sixiang Wang, and Diana Yüksel.
Why has China’s authoritarian government under Xi Jinping retained popular support without political reforms? Drawing on Chinese social media data, in this book Titus C. Chen argues that China’s digital propaganda and information control techniques--the monopolistic exercise of market authoritarianism--have empowered the Xi administration to manipulate public discourse and shape public opinion via social media. Chen argues that these techniques forge a sense of community and unite the general public under the Chinese government, thereby legitimating autocratic rule. By enhancing our understanding of China’s digital ideological statecraft, the book makes a major contribution to the fields of China Studies and Political Communication.
Comparative Perspectives in the History and the Philosophy of Science
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This book highlights the emergence of a new mathematical rationality and the beginning of the mathematisation of physics in Classical Islam. Exchanges between mathematics, physics, linguistics, arts and music were a factor of creativity and progress in the mathematical, the physical and the social sciences. Goods and ideas travelled on a world-scale, mainly through the trade routes connecting East and Southern Asia with the Near East, allowing the transmission of Greek-Arabic medicine to Yuan Muslim China. The development of science, first centred in the Near East, would gradually move to the Western side of the Mediterranean, as a result of Europe’s appropriation of the Arab and Hellenistic heritage. Contributors are Paul Buell, Anas Ghrab, Hossein Masoumi Hamedani, Zeinab Karimian, Giovanna Lelli, Marouane ben Miled, Patricia Radelet-de Grave, and Roshdi Rashed.
Thirty years after the fall of Soviet power, we are beginning to understand that the experience of Muslims in the USSR continued patterns of adaptation and negotiation known from Muslim history in the lands that became the Soviet Union, and in other regions as well; we can also now understand that the long history of Muslims situating religious authority locally, in the various regions that came under Soviet rule, in fact continued through the Soviet era into post-Soviet times.
The present volume is intended to historicize the question of religious authority in Muslim Central Eurasia, through historical and anthropological case studies about the exercise, negotiation, or institutionalization of authority, from the nineteenth to the early twenty-first century; it thus seeks to frame Islamic religious history in the areas shaped by Russian and Soviet rule in terms of issues relevant to Muslims themselves, as Muslims, rather than solely in terms of questions of colonial rule.
Contributors are Sergei Abashin, Ulfat Abdurasulov, Bakhtiyar Babajanov, Devin DeWeese, Allen J. Frank, Benjamin Gatling, Agnès Kefeli, Paolo Sartori, Wendell Schwab, Pavel Shabley, Shamil Shikhaliev, and William A. Wood.
The present volume is intended to historicize the question of religious authority in Muslim Central Eurasia, through historical and anthropological case studies about the exercise, negotiation, or institutionalization of authority, from the nineteenth to the early twenty-first century; it thus seeks to frame Islamic religious history in the areas shaped by Russian and Soviet rule in terms of issues relevant to Muslims themselves, as Muslims, rather than solely in terms of questions of colonial rule.
Contributors are Sergei Abashin, Ulfat Abdurasulov, Bakhtiyar Babajanov, Devin DeWeese, Allen J. Frank, Benjamin Gatling, Agnès Kefeli, Paolo Sartori, Wendell Schwab, Pavel Shabley, Shamil Shikhaliev, and William A. Wood.
The Exchange of Ideas and Political Collaborations between China's Men of Guns and Men of Letters, 1919-1923
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This book offers the first comprehensive study of the ways in which China’s men of guns (so-called “warlords”) and men of letters (May Fourth intellectuals) engaged one another for the making of a Chinese federation between 1919 and 1923. Breaking the constructed dichotomy between the men of guns and men of letters, Vivienne Guo’s analysis reappraises Chinese warlordism against the backdrop of the Chinese enlightenment. Exploring the ideological underpinnings and political vigour of the Chinese federalist movement, Negotiating A Chinese Federation provides a fresh interpretation of China’s cultural renewal and state-building.
A Critique of the Sinocentric Paradigm
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Devised to legitimize the Republic of China’s claim over Inner Asia, the Sinocentric paradigm stems from the Open Door Policy and Chinese nationalism. Advanced against the conquest theory, and rationalized as the pathfinding ecological theory, it is an evolutionary materialist scheme that became the vision of history.
Exposing the initial agenda of this paradigm and revealing its fundamental contradictions, The Nomadic Leviathan debunks it as a myth. Resurrecting the conquest theory, and reinforcing it with the idea of extrahuman transportation, this book places pastoralism at the origin of the state and civilization, and the Eurasian steppe at the center of human history; the political emerges as the primary and fundamental order defining the social and economic.
Exposing the initial agenda of this paradigm and revealing its fundamental contradictions, The Nomadic Leviathan debunks it as a myth. Resurrecting the conquest theory, and reinforcing it with the idea of extrahuman transportation, this book places pastoralism at the origin of the state and civilization, and the Eurasian steppe at the center of human history; the political emerges as the primary and fundamental order defining the social and economic.
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The Zhou Changes, better known in the West as I Ching, is one of the masterpieces of world literature.
This book, the climax of more than forty years of research in Chinese archaeology, explores the text’s origins in the oracle-bone and milfoil divinations of Bronze Age China and how it transformed over the course of the Zhou dynasty into the first of the Chinese classics.
The book provides an in-depth survey of the theory and practice of divination to demonstrate how the hexagram and line statements of the text were produced and how they were understood at the time.
This book, the climax of more than forty years of research in Chinese archaeology, explores the text’s origins in the oracle-bone and milfoil divinations of Bronze Age China and how it transformed over the course of the Zhou dynasty into the first of the Chinese classics.
The book provides an in-depth survey of the theory and practice of divination to demonstrate how the hexagram and line statements of the text were produced and how they were understood at the time.
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